Blood simple by bloody siblings, BROTHERS’ NEST is a new personal best from the Jacobson Brothers, who gave us the dunny delight of Kenny a dozen years back.
More sinister than the cistern servicing plumber and portaloo impresario, BROTHERS’ NEST has real life brothers Shane and Clayton Jacobson playing a felonious fraternity eyeball deep in family shit.
Jeff has plotted the perfect crime that will see them obtain their rightful inheritance. Together, on a cold morning in country Victoria, he and his brother Terry, cycle commando style to the family home with lethal intent.
Their motive is to make sure that their dying mother doesn’t leave everything to their stepfather, and so a plan of step-patricide is put in place, a murder made look like suicide.
Jeff’s plan is meticulous but his insistence they spend the day at the house rehearsing the desired outcome puts an unexpected X factor into the execution.
As the day wears on and Jeff’s obsessive, forensic approach borders on the bullying of his brother, the plan starts to fray, with brotherly love turning into sibling rivalry.
Jaime Brown’s screenplay is a slow burn character study with suspense ratcheted as the rehearsal moves into fully fledged production.
Clayton Jacobson – who also directs the film – plays the mastermind Jeff with a kind of obsessive compulsive disorder while Shane Jacobson as Terry sports a softer more compassionate character, a contrast that subtly, then more assuredly, brings the boys into conflict. More a vipers nest than a brothers nest
BROTHERS’ NEST is basically a two hander but there is a strong supporting cast with Lynette Curran as Mum, Kim Gyngell as the targeted step-dad, and Sarah Snook in a gorgeous cameo.
Lensed by Peter Falk who was cinematographer on The Jammed, BROTHERS’ NEST is blessed with a wonderful attention to detail production design courtesy of Robert Perkins and art director Martin Perkins and cossies by Katie Graham.
To top it off, BROTHERS’ NEST boasts a cracker score by Richard Pleasance, moody piano/cello themes, along with songs by Pleasantville and Jo Jo Rainwater.
BROTHERS’ NEST deserves audiences to flock to it and roost in its dark, comedic eyrie.